1. Technical Field
Exemplary aspects of the present invention generally relate to an image forming apparatus, such as a copier, a facsimile machine, a printer, or a multi-functional system including a combination thereof, and more particularly to, a transfer unit employed in the image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are known image forming apparatuses equipped with a transfer unit including a looped belt to transfer an image or to transport a recording medium onto which an image is transferred. The belt is looped around a plurality of rotational supports and is disposed opposite an image bearer. The transfer unit is movable by a contact-and-separation device such that the belt can contact and separate from the image bearer. During transfer of an image, the transfer unit is situated at a position at which the belt can contact the image bearer. When an image is not formed or the transfer unit is detached from the image forming apparatus, the belt is separated from the image bearer.
In such a configuration, deformation and vibration of the belt cause misalignment of the belt and the image bearer. In order to prevent the positional relations of the belt and the image bearer from changing, for example, an end portion of the surface of the belt is pressed from above by a belt pressing member.
Because the belt pressing member contacts the belt upon image transfer, the belt pressing member is fixated, in general. There is a drawback to this configuration in that when the belt is separated from the image bearer to separate the transfer unit from the image forming apparatus but the belt pressing member is fixated, the separated belt and the belt pressing member interfere with each other.